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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:04,690 --> 00:00:06,930 Since the dawn of civilisation, 2 00:00:06,930 --> 00:00:10,410 the forces of nature and the whims of gods 3 00:00:10,410 --> 00:00:12,770 held sway over humanity. 4 00:00:15,090 --> 00:00:16,690 But 2,500 years ago, 5 00:00:16,690 --> 00:00:20,410 humankind experienced a profound transformation. 6 00:00:23,530 --> 00:00:27,290 Suddenly, there were new possibilities. 7 00:00:27,290 --> 00:00:31,890 This is a time when rationality overrode superstition and belief. 8 00:00:31,890 --> 00:00:35,370 This is an ethic which does not rely on the gods. 9 00:00:35,370 --> 00:00:39,090 The world is now explained in terms of natural forces. 10 00:00:39,090 --> 00:00:41,850 We're now responsible for our own destiny. 11 00:00:45,730 --> 00:00:48,050 Upheavals across the globe 12 00:00:48,050 --> 00:00:51,810 sparked an ambitious vision of what humans could achieve, 13 00:00:51,810 --> 00:00:55,250 spearheaded by three trailblazers. 14 00:00:56,410 --> 00:00:59,450 Socrates, Confucius and the Buddha - 15 00:00:59,450 --> 00:01:01,690 great thinkers from the ancient world 16 00:01:01,690 --> 00:01:04,690 whose ideas still shape our own lives. 17 00:01:06,450 --> 00:01:08,090 Is wealth a good thing? 18 00:01:09,130 --> 00:01:11,530 How do you create a just society? 19 00:01:13,010 --> 00:01:14,770 How do I live a good life? 20 00:01:17,090 --> 00:01:19,450 By daring to think the unthinkable, 21 00:01:19,450 --> 00:01:22,690 they laid the foundations of our modern world. 22 00:01:23,930 --> 00:01:27,210 I've always been intrigued by the fact that these men, 23 00:01:27,210 --> 00:01:29,890 who lived many thousands of miles apart, 24 00:01:29,890 --> 00:01:31,690 seemed spontaneously 25 00:01:31,690 --> 00:01:34,010 and within 100 years of one another, 26 00:01:34,010 --> 00:01:36,570 to come up with such radical ideas. 27 00:01:41,290 --> 00:01:43,290 So, what was going on? 28 00:01:43,290 --> 00:01:46,290 I want to investigate their revolutionary ideas - 29 00:01:46,290 --> 00:01:48,690 to understand what set them in motion. 30 00:01:48,690 --> 00:01:50,930 This time, Socrates. 31 00:01:50,930 --> 00:01:52,130 It's so thrilling, 32 00:01:52,130 --> 00:01:56,410 imagining those big new ideas could possibly have been enacted there! 33 00:01:56,410 --> 00:01:58,890 He was the soldier whose bravery in battle 34 00:01:58,890 --> 00:02:02,690 was matched by the inflammatory courage of his ideas. 35 00:02:02,690 --> 00:02:05,210 Socrates encouraged his fellow citizens 36 00:02:05,210 --> 00:02:08,450 to rationally examine every aspect of their lives. 37 00:02:09,490 --> 00:02:12,850 Does the person who possess knowledge in the big way know everything? 38 00:02:12,850 --> 00:02:15,610 - You don't know? - I don't know. I give up! I give up! 39 00:02:15,610 --> 00:02:17,930 I'm going to inhabit his world, 40 00:02:17,930 --> 00:02:20,490 to examine how his subversive philosophy 41 00:02:20,490 --> 00:02:24,450 challenged superstitious belief that had reigned for millennia... 42 00:02:26,090 --> 00:02:29,570 ..and to discover how his search for truth 43 00:02:29,570 --> 00:02:31,610 led to his downfall. 44 00:02:51,170 --> 00:02:53,930 In 469 BC, 45 00:02:53,930 --> 00:02:58,330 Socrates was born, the son of a midwife and a stonemason, 46 00:02:58,330 --> 00:03:02,770 into a city in the midst of a tumultuous transformation. 47 00:03:04,050 --> 00:03:06,290 He grew up in the suburbs of Athens, 48 00:03:06,290 --> 00:03:09,250 at eye level with the sacred Acropolis rock. 49 00:03:11,970 --> 00:03:14,290 But young Socrates wouldn't have looked out 50 00:03:14,290 --> 00:03:17,330 over the elegant lines of the Parthenon Temple, 51 00:03:17,330 --> 00:03:20,050 that exquisite symbol of Western civilisation 52 00:03:20,050 --> 00:03:22,770 that still stands proud today. 53 00:03:22,770 --> 00:03:26,930 Instead, he'd have woken every morning to a horror - 54 00:03:26,930 --> 00:03:32,770 the blackened and burnt-out remains of buildings brutalised by war. 55 00:03:40,130 --> 00:03:43,090 His city bore the scars of a ferocious conflict 56 00:03:43,090 --> 00:03:46,970 with the region's superpower, Persia. 57 00:03:46,970 --> 00:03:49,810 But, against the odds, Athens had triumphed, 58 00:03:49,810 --> 00:03:52,290 just ten years before Socrates was born. 59 00:03:53,450 --> 00:03:57,970 Now, it revelled in what some call "the Greek miracle" - 60 00:03:57,970 --> 00:04:00,290 a golden age. 61 00:04:00,290 --> 00:04:03,210 Burgeoning trade flooded the region with new wealth 62 00:04:03,210 --> 00:04:05,490 and crucially, with new ideas. 63 00:04:09,050 --> 00:04:13,290 But the key ideology that would shape young Socrates' life 64 00:04:13,290 --> 00:04:15,930 belonged to Athens alone - 65 00:04:15,930 --> 00:04:19,410 because here, around 508 BC, 66 00:04:19,410 --> 00:04:24,770 democracy, the power of the people, was born. 67 00:04:24,770 --> 00:04:26,330 Virtually overnight, 68 00:04:26,330 --> 00:04:30,450 all adult male citizens found they didn't just serve the state - 69 00:04:30,450 --> 00:04:32,730 they were the state. 70 00:04:32,730 --> 00:04:34,610 You cannot over-emphasise 71 00:04:34,610 --> 00:04:37,330 how electrically exciting this must have been. 72 00:04:37,330 --> 00:04:39,610 Ordinary men were selected randomly at lot 73 00:04:39,610 --> 00:04:42,250 to hold the very highest of offices - 74 00:04:42,250 --> 00:04:44,770 the equivalent of being Head of the Foreign Office, 75 00:04:44,770 --> 00:04:46,770 or Home Secretary for one day. 76 00:04:52,570 --> 00:04:55,930 Socrates wouldn't only witness a city being rebuilt, 77 00:04:55,930 --> 00:04:59,210 but the ethical hazards of a new social experiment. 78 00:05:00,730 --> 00:05:04,850 As he was growing up, democracy too was finding its feet. 79 00:05:07,210 --> 00:05:09,930 Ordinary Athenians now had the potential 80 00:05:09,930 --> 00:05:12,570 to determine their own future, 81 00:05:12,570 --> 00:05:16,050 but their fate was still very firmly in the hands of the gods. 82 00:05:17,250 --> 00:05:20,770 Gods, demigods and spirits were believed to be everywhere, 83 00:05:20,770 --> 00:05:23,130 influencing people's everyday lives. 84 00:05:25,090 --> 00:05:27,930 If I'd been looking out over Athens during Socrates' lifetime, 85 00:05:27,930 --> 00:05:30,890 then this scene would have been thick with smoke 86 00:05:30,890 --> 00:05:34,010 and the smell of sacrifice would be heavy in the air, 87 00:05:34,010 --> 00:05:36,290 as Athenians frantically rushed around, 88 00:05:36,290 --> 00:05:38,850 trying to keep their gods on side - 89 00:05:38,850 --> 00:05:40,370 all 2,000 of them! 90 00:05:43,730 --> 00:05:45,450 This "pantheon of gods" 91 00:05:45,450 --> 00:05:48,970 gave people a sense of their place in the universe. 92 00:05:48,970 --> 00:05:51,170 But in these exciting times, 93 00:05:51,170 --> 00:05:53,850 a few were daring to question religious convention. 94 00:05:55,210 --> 00:05:57,890 As a teenager, Socrates sought them out 95 00:05:57,890 --> 00:06:01,130 in one of Athens' most edgy and marginal districts - 96 00:06:01,130 --> 00:06:02,410 Keramiekos. 97 00:06:06,130 --> 00:06:10,050 For 600 years, this had been Athens' main burial ground. 98 00:06:10,050 --> 00:06:11,610 Come Socrates' day, 99 00:06:11,610 --> 00:06:16,330 and it had evolved into a kind of cosmopolitan suburb of sin. 100 00:06:16,330 --> 00:06:18,770 Travelling salesman plied their wares here, 101 00:06:18,770 --> 00:06:20,210 along with prostitutes, 102 00:06:20,210 --> 00:06:23,090 who offered what were euphemistically known as 103 00:06:23,090 --> 00:06:24,890 "middle of the day marriages". 104 00:06:29,450 --> 00:06:32,210 Many young Athenians didn't need to work. 105 00:06:32,210 --> 00:06:36,250 There was one slave to every two free citizens. 106 00:06:36,250 --> 00:06:38,810 So, Socrates had the free time to come here 107 00:06:38,810 --> 00:06:42,050 and listen in on theories carried in on the trade routes. 108 00:06:43,570 --> 00:06:46,210 He encountered thinkers from the Eastern Mediterranean, 109 00:06:46,210 --> 00:06:48,890 whose ideas had, for over a century, 110 00:06:48,890 --> 00:06:52,290 confronted traditional explanations of the cosmos. 111 00:07:02,330 --> 00:07:06,010 What people saw as mysterious and unfathomable, 112 00:07:06,010 --> 00:07:08,770 they viewed as rationally ordered - 113 00:07:08,770 --> 00:07:12,290 and to some degree, rationally explicable. 114 00:07:16,490 --> 00:07:20,130 We refer to them now as one group, the pre-Socratics, 115 00:07:20,130 --> 00:07:24,410 but in reality, they were brilliant, independent thinkers. 116 00:07:26,010 --> 00:07:30,250 They asked hugely ambitious scientific questions. 117 00:07:30,250 --> 00:07:32,970 What is the cosmos made of? 118 00:07:32,970 --> 00:07:36,290 What is matter, and how do we perceive it? 119 00:07:36,290 --> 00:07:38,450 Their answers, in some cases, 120 00:07:38,450 --> 00:07:42,730 undermined the role of the gods as rulers of the cosmos. 121 00:07:42,730 --> 00:07:44,490 Their abstract theories - 122 00:07:44,490 --> 00:07:48,490 obviously conceived without the help of scientific instruments - 123 00:07:48,490 --> 00:07:51,850 that the universe was made of atoms and empty space, 124 00:07:51,850 --> 00:07:55,170 that water was the fundamental element of the world, 125 00:07:55,170 --> 00:07:58,970 and that the sun was one giant red-hot rock, 126 00:07:58,970 --> 00:08:02,130 were wildly provocative. 127 00:08:02,130 --> 00:08:06,690 The scale and audacity of their thinking was breathtaking. 128 00:08:12,210 --> 00:08:17,090 The pre-Socratics not only struck at the core of traditional belief, 129 00:08:17,090 --> 00:08:20,090 but their use of reason opened up a new way 130 00:08:20,090 --> 00:08:23,450 to look at the entirety of human experience - 131 00:08:23,450 --> 00:08:27,010 an approach eagerly taken up by the young Socrates. 132 00:08:28,330 --> 00:08:33,050 Suddenly, it's not just tradition or myth or religious hierarchies 133 00:08:33,050 --> 00:08:35,730 that are telling you how to make sense of your world, 134 00:08:35,730 --> 00:08:39,610 but rational debate, systematic thought. 135 00:08:39,610 --> 00:08:42,610 Just like those other groundbreaking philosophers of the age - 136 00:08:42,610 --> 00:08:45,970 Confucius in China and the Buddha in what's now India - 137 00:08:45,970 --> 00:08:47,730 Socrates and his contemporaries 138 00:08:47,730 --> 00:08:50,890 are daring to harness the power of the mind 139 00:08:50,890 --> 00:08:52,930 to explain the world around them. 140 00:08:53,930 --> 00:08:56,570 This is a quantum shift. 141 00:08:59,090 --> 00:09:01,890 Confident, brave-new-world Athens 142 00:09:01,890 --> 00:09:05,450 didn't seek to suppress this new spirit of inquiry. 143 00:09:05,450 --> 00:09:09,010 The city became a magnet for innovation - 144 00:09:09,010 --> 00:09:12,970 thanks, in large part, to the man who would dominate Athenian politics 145 00:09:12,970 --> 00:09:15,610 for almost half of Socrates' life - 146 00:09:15,610 --> 00:09:18,770 the visionary politician, Pericles. 147 00:09:18,770 --> 00:09:21,490 He gathered thinkers and artists to advise him 148 00:09:21,490 --> 00:09:23,410 and set about making democracy 149 00:09:23,410 --> 00:09:25,770 the dominant ideology in the Greek world. 150 00:09:26,810 --> 00:09:30,290 He glorified the streets with sumptuous statues 151 00:09:30,290 --> 00:09:33,850 and fetishized democratic principles. 152 00:09:33,850 --> 00:09:38,410 Athens built warships called "Freedom" and "Freedom of Speech". 153 00:09:39,610 --> 00:09:44,090 Yet, Socrates would understand all this success had its flipside. 154 00:09:44,090 --> 00:09:47,890 Democracy's high ideals would need to be interrogated. 155 00:09:49,730 --> 00:09:52,890 A later source tells us that Socrates declared, 156 00:09:52,890 --> 00:09:57,850 "Beautiful statues, high city walls and warships are all very well, 157 00:09:57,850 --> 00:10:01,810 "but what's the point, if those within them aren't happy?" 158 00:10:01,810 --> 00:10:04,450 So, we have to imagine a young Socrates 159 00:10:04,450 --> 00:10:07,490 walking around this fabulous, febrile city, 160 00:10:07,490 --> 00:10:09,730 beginning to ask those big questions 161 00:10:09,730 --> 00:10:12,570 that are still utterly relevant today. 162 00:10:12,570 --> 00:10:15,210 Is wealth a good thing? 163 00:10:15,210 --> 00:10:19,610 Can a democracy itself create a just society? 164 00:10:19,610 --> 00:10:22,730 What is it makes us truly happy? 165 00:10:31,570 --> 00:10:36,930 Democracy had opened a Pandora's box of new dilemmas and contradictions. 166 00:10:36,930 --> 00:10:38,570 As he reached adulthood, 167 00:10:38,570 --> 00:10:41,090 Socrates would become the one to point them out - 168 00:10:41,090 --> 00:10:45,690 a constant irritant, known as "the gadfly of Athens". 169 00:10:46,770 --> 00:10:48,730 An infamous celebrity of his day. 170 00:10:53,250 --> 00:10:56,690 But Socrates is also an enigma, because as far as we know, 171 00:10:56,690 --> 00:11:00,690 he didn't write anything down - not a single line. 172 00:11:00,690 --> 00:11:02,850 He thought that writing was dangerous, 173 00:11:02,850 --> 00:11:04,850 because it imprisoned knowledge. 174 00:11:06,170 --> 00:11:08,050 It's only thanks to contemporaries - 175 00:11:08,050 --> 00:11:11,330 such as Plato, who may have coined the term "philosopher", 176 00:11:11,330 --> 00:11:13,610 perhaps with Socrates in mind - 177 00:11:13,610 --> 00:11:16,370 that his thoughts and life story have been preserved. 178 00:11:18,250 --> 00:11:20,770 And what a man he seems to have been. 179 00:11:20,770 --> 00:11:23,450 Ironic, courageous, brilliant, 180 00:11:23,450 --> 00:11:25,370 wildly charismatic 181 00:11:25,370 --> 00:11:27,490 and utterly infuriating. 182 00:11:27,490 --> 00:11:30,650 Plato's compelling accounts of his life, his ideas 183 00:11:30,650 --> 00:11:34,970 and his dramatic death are a jewel in the canon of Western thought. 184 00:11:48,290 --> 00:11:50,570 When we think of the ancient Greek philosophers, 185 00:11:50,570 --> 00:11:52,890 we often visualise them as they've been portrayed 186 00:11:52,890 --> 00:11:55,210 in Renaissance works of art - 187 00:11:55,210 --> 00:11:58,210 lofty grey beards, draped in elegant robes, 188 00:11:58,210 --> 00:12:00,890 hanging around classical columns. 189 00:12:00,890 --> 00:12:02,570 We don't perhaps imagine them 190 00:12:02,570 --> 00:12:06,090 involved in the dirty and bloody business of war. 191 00:12:12,410 --> 00:12:16,210 Athens' appetite for territorial expansion seems to been sharpened 192 00:12:16,210 --> 00:12:18,970 by the collective will of democratic voters. 193 00:12:20,530 --> 00:12:25,770 Socrates, like all male Athenian citizens, was expected to fight. 194 00:12:27,450 --> 00:12:31,210 He was in his late 30s when he was sent here, to Potidaea, 195 00:12:31,210 --> 00:12:34,490 to help take control of this strategic city in Northern Greece. 196 00:12:36,530 --> 00:12:38,010 It's from this time of war 197 00:12:38,010 --> 00:12:41,610 we get sharper textual details of Socrates' life. 198 00:12:41,610 --> 00:12:44,570 The man himself starts to come into focus. 199 00:12:44,570 --> 00:12:49,450 His vision, his physical courage, his eccentricities - 200 00:12:49,450 --> 00:12:53,050 and a man with something momentous on his mind. 201 00:12:56,490 --> 00:12:58,610 The fighting was fierce - 202 00:12:58,610 --> 00:13:02,250 and for three years, the town was besieged. 203 00:13:02,250 --> 00:13:05,770 In desperation, locals turned to cannibalism. 204 00:13:06,970 --> 00:13:11,050 Yet, in amongst all these horrors and the pity of war, 205 00:13:11,050 --> 00:13:14,210 somehow Socrates found stillness. 206 00:13:21,250 --> 00:13:25,370 We're told he became absorbed by complex, private thoughts. 207 00:13:27,050 --> 00:13:28,850 In the depths of winter, 208 00:13:28,850 --> 00:13:32,490 wearing just a threadbare cloak and with bare feet, 209 00:13:32,490 --> 00:13:36,770 he stood - for 24 hours at a stretch. 210 00:13:36,770 --> 00:13:39,210 Stock-still, 211 00:13:39,210 --> 00:13:41,410 lost in his own mind. 212 00:13:44,130 --> 00:13:46,250 Unlike the pre-Socratic thinkers, 213 00:13:46,250 --> 00:13:49,450 Socrates came to believe that understanding the cosmos 214 00:13:49,450 --> 00:13:53,570 was an esoteric diversion from something far more important. 215 00:13:54,810 --> 00:13:58,130 Studying the secrets of the stars was all very well, 216 00:13:58,130 --> 00:14:01,610 but human affairs had far greater urgency. 217 00:14:06,210 --> 00:14:09,810 So, Socrates did something truly ground-breaking. 218 00:14:11,330 --> 00:14:14,170 He turned rational thought inward, 219 00:14:14,170 --> 00:14:17,130 to solve the mortal dilemmas we all face. 220 00:14:20,330 --> 00:14:21,810 He threw all his energies 221 00:14:21,810 --> 00:14:25,730 into resolving the fundamental questions of human existence. 222 00:14:25,730 --> 00:14:28,010 What kind of a life should we lead? 223 00:14:28,010 --> 00:14:30,090 What sort of people do we want to be? 224 00:14:31,130 --> 00:14:33,850 He's the first individual in the West 225 00:14:33,850 --> 00:14:36,930 to put ethics at the very heart of his philosophy. 226 00:14:46,650 --> 00:14:49,410 Socrates' starting point was simple. 227 00:14:49,410 --> 00:14:53,130 Everyone yearns for a full and flourishing life, 228 00:14:53,130 --> 00:14:55,650 but it wasn't to be found in the transitory pleasures 229 00:14:55,650 --> 00:14:58,050 and distractions of the material world. 230 00:14:59,570 --> 00:15:03,450 Socrates believed we can only realise our human potential 231 00:15:03,450 --> 00:15:05,610 when we nurture the most precious, 232 00:15:05,610 --> 00:15:09,930 the most permanent part of our beings - our souls. 233 00:15:09,930 --> 00:15:12,810 When we do right, we protect our soul. 234 00:15:12,810 --> 00:15:15,290 When we do wrong, we harm it. 235 00:15:17,690 --> 00:15:22,770 Knowing right from wrong was fundamental to every aspect of life. 236 00:15:22,770 --> 00:15:25,890 And in fifth century Athens, the issue was acute. 237 00:15:27,130 --> 00:15:32,210 As many as 4,000 legal cases were heard each year. 238 00:15:32,210 --> 00:15:35,250 Democracy had revolutionised the law courts. 239 00:15:36,330 --> 00:15:38,410 Now, any male citizen, 240 00:15:38,410 --> 00:15:41,210 from aristocrats right down to fishmongers, 241 00:15:41,210 --> 00:15:43,050 could be a judge for the day. 242 00:15:44,090 --> 00:15:48,650 We're told Socrates found such amateur governance troubling. 243 00:15:48,650 --> 00:15:51,650 If those sitting in judgment weren't qualified to understand 244 00:15:51,650 --> 00:15:53,810 the difference between right and wrong, 245 00:15:53,810 --> 00:15:56,690 then they could convict an innocent person. 246 00:15:56,690 --> 00:16:00,050 They'd be punishing someone who didn't deserve to be hurt. 247 00:16:03,170 --> 00:16:07,850 But in Socrates' view, the innocent person would only suffer physically. 248 00:16:07,850 --> 00:16:11,890 It's the jurors who would be harming themselves much more. 249 00:16:11,890 --> 00:16:14,210 By unknowingly doing wrong, 250 00:16:14,210 --> 00:16:19,690 they would inflict terrible, lasting damage to their own souls. 251 00:16:19,690 --> 00:16:24,530 In order to protect Athenians, Socrates needed to teach them. 252 00:16:24,530 --> 00:16:27,570 "The only evil is ignorance", he said. 253 00:16:28,610 --> 00:16:30,770 But Socrates faced a problem. 254 00:16:30,770 --> 00:16:33,810 The Greeks did have an ethical framework of sorts, 255 00:16:33,810 --> 00:16:36,370 but it wasn't either clear or consistent. 256 00:16:40,250 --> 00:16:44,290 The destiny of all Greeks was in the hands of the gods. 257 00:16:44,290 --> 00:16:45,810 They were venerated, 258 00:16:45,810 --> 00:16:49,850 even though their personal lives were pretty short on moral guidance. 259 00:16:50,930 --> 00:16:52,770 Capricious and vengeful, 260 00:16:52,770 --> 00:16:55,770 they fought with each other, they slept with one another's wives, 261 00:16:55,770 --> 00:16:58,050 they abducted mortals. 262 00:16:58,050 --> 00:16:59,410 And appropriately, 263 00:16:59,410 --> 00:17:03,130 the gods didn't seem that interested in human morality, either. 264 00:17:04,290 --> 00:17:08,010 Living a good life didn't guarantee favour with the gods. 265 00:17:08,010 --> 00:17:09,650 Respecting their power 266 00:17:09,650 --> 00:17:13,490 and offering the most expensive and bloodiest sacrifice 267 00:17:13,490 --> 00:17:15,130 was a much safer bet. 268 00:17:18,130 --> 00:17:21,570 Greeks did, however, believe there were five virtues - 269 00:17:21,570 --> 00:17:26,490 justice, temperance, courage, piety and wisdom. 270 00:17:26,490 --> 00:17:31,410 But in practice, these virtues were slippery, shifting ideals. 271 00:17:31,410 --> 00:17:35,210 What was considered just or pious for an aristocratic man 272 00:17:35,210 --> 00:17:38,210 wasn't necessarily the same for a slave woman. 273 00:17:39,330 --> 00:17:42,530 In Socrates' experience, traditional moral thinking - 274 00:17:42,530 --> 00:17:46,330 the kind taught by elders and priests and epic poets - 275 00:17:46,330 --> 00:17:49,010 just didn't stand up to scrutiny. 276 00:17:49,010 --> 00:17:54,130 His philosophy became a search for more robust, universal definitions. 277 00:17:56,850 --> 00:18:00,770 Socrates thought that all the virtues were interlinked. 278 00:18:00,770 --> 00:18:02,890 They couldn't be separated. 279 00:18:02,890 --> 00:18:05,330 He thought of them as one thing - 280 00:18:05,330 --> 00:18:09,170 something he called "knowledge of the human good". 281 00:18:12,850 --> 00:18:17,610 For him, virtue is knowledge - knowledge of the human good. 282 00:18:17,610 --> 00:18:20,930 He says that this knowledge of the human good 283 00:18:20,930 --> 00:18:23,770 is going to, in some sense, save your life. 284 00:18:23,770 --> 00:18:26,130 This is really strong language. 285 00:18:26,130 --> 00:18:27,930 But is that an abstract idea, 286 00:18:27,930 --> 00:18:31,330 or is there something that can play out in people's day to day lives? 287 00:18:31,330 --> 00:18:33,850 Oh, no, absolutely. Knowledge of the human good 288 00:18:33,850 --> 00:18:37,850 is what enables us to make the right practical decisions 289 00:18:37,850 --> 00:18:39,610 in our daily lives. 290 00:18:39,610 --> 00:18:43,650 But it's going to look different in different contexts. 291 00:18:43,650 --> 00:18:45,850 For instance, if you're on a battlefield, 292 00:18:45,850 --> 00:18:47,850 it will manifest itself as courage. 293 00:18:47,850 --> 00:18:52,130 If you're sacrificing in a temple, it will look like piety, 294 00:18:52,130 --> 00:18:54,650 And it's through those decisions and actions 295 00:18:54,650 --> 00:18:57,690 that we are enabled to take care of our souls - 296 00:18:57,690 --> 00:19:00,130 our most precious possession, 297 00:19:00,130 --> 00:19:03,170 on which all our happiness depends. 298 00:19:03,170 --> 00:19:05,690 But that means that people have real agency, 299 00:19:05,690 --> 00:19:07,490 because it seems to me that he's saying 300 00:19:07,490 --> 00:19:09,890 it's not down to the Gods to make the world a better place, 301 00:19:09,890 --> 00:19:11,810 - it's down to us. - Absolutely. 302 00:19:11,810 --> 00:19:15,130 Socrates is saying, you don't have to depend on the whims 303 00:19:15,130 --> 00:19:16,930 and the caprices of the gods. 304 00:19:16,930 --> 00:19:21,450 It's really about individual empowerment and responsibility. 305 00:19:21,450 --> 00:19:24,490 And furthermore, whereas he inherited a tradition which said 306 00:19:24,490 --> 00:19:27,250 there was one kind of virtue for a man, another for a woman, 307 00:19:27,250 --> 00:19:31,690 one for, you know, a well-born person, another for a slave, 308 00:19:31,690 --> 00:19:35,090 he's saying, no - it's about knowledge of the human good, 309 00:19:35,090 --> 00:19:39,490 in a universal sense. It's available to everybody. 310 00:19:39,490 --> 00:19:41,210 Cicero later says of him, 311 00:19:41,210 --> 00:19:45,610 he brings philosophy down from the heavens and into people's homes 312 00:19:45,610 --> 00:19:47,890 and into people's individual homes. 313 00:19:47,890 --> 00:19:52,490 This really is a very radical moment in Western thought. 314 00:19:52,490 --> 00:19:55,690 Exciting and empowering, but also dangerous. 315 00:19:55,690 --> 00:19:59,850 Indeed, because even though Socrates himself 316 00:19:59,850 --> 00:20:03,930 was personally very religious, as far as we know, very pious, 317 00:20:03,930 --> 00:20:06,370 this is socially threatening. 318 00:20:06,370 --> 00:20:09,490 It's threatening traditional religion and of course, 319 00:20:09,490 --> 00:20:12,850 these messages are disturbing to a lot of people. 320 00:20:17,730 --> 00:20:21,490 Socrates didn't deny the existence of the gods, but his emphasis 321 00:20:21,490 --> 00:20:24,650 on the capacity of humans to shape their own destiny 322 00:20:24,650 --> 00:20:27,810 could be seen as challenging their traditional roles. 323 00:20:31,530 --> 00:20:34,410 Fortunately, the sacrificial fires to the Gods, 324 00:20:34,410 --> 00:20:36,050 which had burnt for centuries, 325 00:20:36,050 --> 00:20:40,130 were now lit in a city that also prized freedom of expression. 326 00:20:41,610 --> 00:20:45,370 Initially, Socrates' unorthodox ideas were tolerated. 327 00:20:46,610 --> 00:20:49,130 But then, in 431 BC, 328 00:20:49,130 --> 00:20:51,250 the good times looked set to end. 329 00:20:55,930 --> 00:20:59,650 The violence of Potidaea escalated into all-out conflict. 330 00:21:01,050 --> 00:21:05,010 The pitiless Peloponnesian war between Athens and its nemesis - 331 00:21:05,010 --> 00:21:07,010 the city-state of Sparta. 332 00:21:08,770 --> 00:21:11,050 Here at the National Archaeological Museum, 333 00:21:11,050 --> 00:21:14,970 funerary urns depict the heartbreaking suffering and loss 334 00:21:14,970 --> 00:21:16,770 experienced by the Athenians. 335 00:21:21,250 --> 00:21:25,170 With Spartan hordes ravaging the countryside around Athens, 336 00:21:25,170 --> 00:21:28,570 Pericles ordered every citizen from the surrounding area 337 00:21:28,570 --> 00:21:30,450 to come inside the city walls. 338 00:21:31,650 --> 00:21:34,290 It was a fatal strategy. 339 00:21:34,290 --> 00:21:37,690 A new kind of terror was unleashed from within. 340 00:21:41,450 --> 00:21:44,490 Athens became one giant refugee camp. 341 00:21:44,490 --> 00:21:46,730 With the population hemmed in together, 342 00:21:46,730 --> 00:21:50,250 a deadly disease spread like wildfire. 343 00:21:50,250 --> 00:21:52,770 The symptoms were ghastly - 344 00:21:52,770 --> 00:21:56,010 sweats, fevers, a suppurating rash 345 00:21:56,010 --> 00:21:57,690 and a racking cough. 346 00:21:58,770 --> 00:22:00,730 At a conservative estimate, 347 00:22:00,730 --> 00:22:05,250 at least one third of the population was wiped out. 348 00:22:09,090 --> 00:22:12,890 Angry and frustrated Athenians turned on their poster boy 349 00:22:12,890 --> 00:22:15,010 and removed Pericles from office. 350 00:22:16,370 --> 00:22:20,570 Eventually he died, it's believed, of the plague himself. 351 00:22:21,730 --> 00:22:24,010 A thriving Athens had been robust enough 352 00:22:24,010 --> 00:22:27,290 to deal with the searching questions of Socrates. 353 00:22:27,290 --> 00:22:29,570 Now, with confidence ebbing away, 354 00:22:29,570 --> 00:22:31,250 tolerance was threatened. 355 00:22:33,450 --> 00:22:36,410 Yet, energised by the same sense of crisis and danger 356 00:22:36,410 --> 00:22:40,330 which motivated the philosophies of Confucius and the Buddha, 357 00:22:40,330 --> 00:22:42,530 Socrates seems to have flourished. 358 00:22:45,410 --> 00:22:47,250 By now in his 40s 359 00:22:47,250 --> 00:22:51,050 and surrounded by war, death and disease, 360 00:22:51,050 --> 00:22:53,330 his search took on a new intensity. 361 00:22:55,050 --> 00:22:57,330 How do we decide what is good? 362 00:23:00,650 --> 00:23:02,370 Is wealth a good thing? 363 00:23:05,210 --> 00:23:07,530 What makes us truly happy? 364 00:23:10,330 --> 00:23:14,250 In Athens, Socrates wasn't the only one discussing big ideas 365 00:23:14,250 --> 00:23:16,050 with its embattled citizens. 366 00:23:17,730 --> 00:23:21,810 The sophists were cock-sure, showy educators - 367 00:23:21,810 --> 00:23:24,450 masters in the art of persuasive argument. 368 00:23:25,450 --> 00:23:28,170 They acted as speechmakers in legal trials, 369 00:23:28,170 --> 00:23:31,210 entertaining huge crowds in stadiums. 370 00:23:31,210 --> 00:23:35,130 Socrates was sceptical, to say the least. 371 00:23:35,130 --> 00:23:38,410 Like the sophists, he challenged orthodox thought, 372 00:23:38,410 --> 00:23:40,250 but he also passionately believed 373 00:23:40,250 --> 00:23:42,850 that philosophy should have a higher purpose. 374 00:23:42,850 --> 00:23:47,210 Clever ideas and persuasive arguments just weren't enough. 375 00:23:51,210 --> 00:23:54,650 To the sophists, smart words were currency. 376 00:23:54,650 --> 00:23:58,290 They sold their services to the highest bidder. 377 00:23:58,290 --> 00:24:01,530 But Socrates refused to be paid, 378 00:24:01,530 --> 00:24:03,650 preferring handouts from friends. 379 00:24:05,290 --> 00:24:08,370 That's not to say he didn't enjoy worldly pleasures. 380 00:24:09,770 --> 00:24:12,090 He drank and made love, 381 00:24:12,090 --> 00:24:13,930 but barefoot and unwashed, 382 00:24:13,930 --> 00:24:16,730 he stood out in materially minded Athens. 383 00:24:18,210 --> 00:24:22,570 We're told that he marched past shop stalls in his shabby robes, saying, 384 00:24:22,570 --> 00:24:24,610 "How many things I don't need!" 385 00:24:26,090 --> 00:24:28,650 He saw wealth as impermanent - 386 00:24:28,650 --> 00:24:32,490 a distraction from the search for absolute values. 387 00:24:32,490 --> 00:24:35,770 Socrates believed you couldn't buy knowledge - 388 00:24:35,770 --> 00:24:39,370 and wisdom didn't come from listening to long speeches. 389 00:24:39,370 --> 00:24:41,930 It could only come through something else - 390 00:24:41,930 --> 00:24:43,850 dialogue. 391 00:24:43,850 --> 00:24:48,850 - So, Bethany, I understand you're here to do a documentary about Socrates. - Yes. 392 00:24:48,850 --> 00:24:50,850 Why are you making this documentary? 393 00:24:50,850 --> 00:24:54,210 'His Socratic method worked something like this - 394 00:24:54,210 --> 00:24:56,690 'Socrates would engage someone in the street...' 395 00:24:56,690 --> 00:24:58,970 I can learn something more about Socrates 396 00:24:58,970 --> 00:25:02,210 and I can share that knowledge with the people who are watching it. 397 00:25:02,210 --> 00:25:04,530 These are big words - "knowledge" and "truth". 398 00:25:04,530 --> 00:25:06,770 Shall we take one of them? What would it mean...? 399 00:25:06,770 --> 00:25:08,770 'He'd ask them an ethical question.' 400 00:25:08,770 --> 00:25:12,490 So what is this thing - knowledge - that you want to impart? 401 00:25:12,490 --> 00:25:13,850 In my book, 402 00:25:13,850 --> 00:25:18,610 knowledge is love of what it is to be human. 403 00:25:18,610 --> 00:25:22,050 'The person would attempt to define the concept, 404 00:25:22,050 --> 00:25:25,290 'but Socrates would find inconsistencies in their answers.' 405 00:25:25,290 --> 00:25:27,570 - So, knowledge is love? - Yeah. - OK. 406 00:25:27,570 --> 00:25:33,090 So, if you wanted to have an operation for an appendicitis, 407 00:25:33,090 --> 00:25:36,410 would you go to a woman who was full of love, 408 00:25:36,410 --> 00:25:39,130 - but knew nothing about surgery? - No! 409 00:25:39,130 --> 00:25:43,250 OK, So I would say that the definition of "knowledge as love" 410 00:25:43,250 --> 00:25:45,010 is not good enough. 411 00:25:45,010 --> 00:25:47,850 'They would be forced to withdraw their definition 412 00:25:47,850 --> 00:25:50,490 'and to reformulate and refine their ideas.' 413 00:25:50,490 --> 00:25:52,450 So, let's try it again. 414 00:25:52,450 --> 00:25:56,010 Is there one kind of knowledge, or many kinds of knowledge? 415 00:25:57,210 --> 00:25:59,130 Knowledge is one thing... 416 00:25:59,130 --> 00:26:02,050 Take your time. I don't know the answers to this. 417 00:26:02,050 --> 00:26:04,610 Maybe knowledge is one thing, 418 00:26:04,610 --> 00:26:06,970 but knowing is many things. 419 00:26:06,970 --> 00:26:08,650 'This process would spiral 420 00:26:08,650 --> 00:26:11,850 'into a dizzying round of question and answer.' 421 00:26:11,850 --> 00:26:14,050 ..To know how the stars move 422 00:26:14,050 --> 00:26:17,490 and to know how the liver operates is the same thing? 423 00:26:18,770 --> 00:26:21,170 No, they're not the same thing. 424 00:26:21,170 --> 00:26:24,650 Does the person who possesses knowledge in the big way know everything? 425 00:26:24,650 --> 00:26:27,970 Between those two, who is probably the best stone maker? 426 00:26:27,970 --> 00:26:31,770 Er... The one who... 427 00:26:31,770 --> 00:26:35,690 I don't know! I give up, I give up! 428 00:26:35,690 --> 00:26:38,530 'Socrates likens his role to that of a midwife, 429 00:26:38,530 --> 00:26:42,050 'who helps to nurture and deliver the thoughts of others. 430 00:26:42,050 --> 00:26:44,570 'But it was never an easy birth.' 431 00:26:44,570 --> 00:26:46,730 I have to say that the one thing you've proved to me 432 00:26:46,730 --> 00:26:48,170 is that I know nothing. 433 00:26:48,170 --> 00:26:50,610 Ah, no, no. That's me! LAUGHTER 434 00:26:50,610 --> 00:26:54,570 I am the expert at making other people know things, but I'm no good - 435 00:26:54,570 --> 00:26:59,650 I know nothing and that is the only knowledge I claim for myself. 436 00:27:00,770 --> 00:27:04,930 That Socratic method is fascinating and stimulating, 437 00:27:04,930 --> 00:27:08,010 but it is also infuriating. 438 00:27:08,010 --> 00:27:11,090 Yes, because it's in an oral context, the way we do it, 439 00:27:11,090 --> 00:27:13,330 and Socrates famously believed 440 00:27:13,330 --> 00:27:16,290 in the supremacy of the oral over the written 441 00:27:16,290 --> 00:27:19,290 and that also stirs up the emotions. 442 00:27:19,290 --> 00:27:23,130 First of all, in his pretence of being the fool. 443 00:27:23,130 --> 00:27:25,250 - The ignorant man. - Of knowing nothing, yeah. 444 00:27:25,250 --> 00:27:27,570 Yes, and because that is his tool, 445 00:27:27,570 --> 00:27:30,930 that he turns, in fact, against his friends - 446 00:27:30,930 --> 00:27:33,570 or opponents, as you may take it - 447 00:27:33,570 --> 00:27:37,810 and makes them admit to things that they don't want to admit to, 448 00:27:37,810 --> 00:27:40,810 by playing essentially the fool, saying, 449 00:27:40,810 --> 00:27:42,410 "I know nothing, I know nothing. 450 00:27:42,410 --> 00:27:45,250 "I can only ask you to tell me, because I know nothing." 451 00:27:45,250 --> 00:27:47,930 So, he laid an emphasis on the definitions, 452 00:27:47,930 --> 00:27:52,170 then on what he called "dieresis" - division - 453 00:27:52,170 --> 00:27:55,090 of breaking down a problem into little parts, 454 00:27:55,090 --> 00:27:57,690 analysing parts, analysing it. 455 00:27:57,690 --> 00:28:00,290 And then, attacking each one separately 456 00:28:00,290 --> 00:28:03,490 and then trying, inductively, to group them back together 457 00:28:03,490 --> 00:28:05,490 into a more general concept. 458 00:28:05,490 --> 00:28:09,690 So, Socrates uses that to make people become aware 459 00:28:09,690 --> 00:28:13,770 that things they consider simple and elementary and basic 460 00:28:13,770 --> 00:28:17,050 and that they know - they in fact don't know. 461 00:28:17,050 --> 00:28:18,850 And what about the modern world? 462 00:28:18,850 --> 00:28:22,290 Do you think we could have the modern world 463 00:28:22,290 --> 00:28:24,650 without Socratic debate, 464 00:28:24,650 --> 00:28:27,250 without questioning what it is to be human 465 00:28:27,250 --> 00:28:30,130 and what it is to be human in the world around us? 466 00:28:30,130 --> 00:28:34,370 Well, I think that the best way to accept, 467 00:28:34,370 --> 00:28:37,210 to find Socrates' place in it 468 00:28:37,210 --> 00:28:41,730 is to see that the opposite of the Socratic method, essentially, 469 00:28:41,730 --> 00:28:45,130 is fanaticism and dogmatism. 470 00:28:45,130 --> 00:28:48,890 And in that sense, the modern world very much needs 471 00:28:48,890 --> 00:28:51,850 an antidote to those things, at every level. 472 00:28:56,730 --> 00:28:59,330 The Socratic method was cathartic. 473 00:28:59,330 --> 00:29:01,730 It got difficult issues out into the open 474 00:29:01,730 --> 00:29:04,690 and defined concepts with much greater precision. 475 00:29:07,690 --> 00:29:11,050 Socrates' tough questioning, with his trademark irony, 476 00:29:11,050 --> 00:29:13,010 was conducted in public, 477 00:29:13,010 --> 00:29:15,730 causing a stir wherever he went. 478 00:29:18,130 --> 00:29:21,970 He was inviting everyone to seek knowledge of the human good, 479 00:29:21,970 --> 00:29:24,970 to identify fundamental truths. 480 00:29:24,970 --> 00:29:27,650 But people could only do this for themselves 481 00:29:27,650 --> 00:29:30,210 by constantly interrogating their actions 482 00:29:30,210 --> 00:29:32,490 and most deeply held beliefs. 483 00:29:32,490 --> 00:29:36,810 "The unexamined life," Socrates said, "is not worth living." 484 00:29:42,130 --> 00:29:44,410 But there was a problem. 485 00:29:44,410 --> 00:29:48,650 Socrates' teaching found particular favour with the young. 486 00:29:48,650 --> 00:29:51,370 With no end in sight to war with Sparta, 487 00:29:51,370 --> 00:29:55,770 these human resources were vital to Athens' future. 488 00:29:55,770 --> 00:29:59,490 Laws attempted to protect the youth from malign influence. 489 00:30:00,570 --> 00:30:04,570 Encouraging them to think for themselves was fraught with danger. 490 00:30:05,850 --> 00:30:08,050 Yet Socrates sought them out, 491 00:30:08,050 --> 00:30:10,930 close to the most public place in the city - 492 00:30:10,930 --> 00:30:12,290 the Agora. 493 00:30:13,770 --> 00:30:15,330 Across the ancient world, 494 00:30:15,330 --> 00:30:18,250 commerce was increasingly a driver for change - 495 00:30:18,250 --> 00:30:21,690 and that was felt particularly keenly here in Athens. 496 00:30:21,690 --> 00:30:24,490 The Agora was a buzzing market, 497 00:30:24,490 --> 00:30:27,850 a place where people came to exchange goods and gossip. 498 00:30:31,850 --> 00:30:34,930 Socrates loved sharing his ideas here. 499 00:30:34,930 --> 00:30:38,370 It's from Agora we get the word "Agoraphobia" - 500 00:30:38,370 --> 00:30:39,970 a fear of open spaces. 501 00:30:41,810 --> 00:30:45,770 There was anxiety back then, too, as under-18s were barred. 502 00:30:47,250 --> 00:30:51,050 Now, archaeology helps to point to how Socrates met young Athenians 503 00:30:51,050 --> 00:30:55,330 just outside the Agora's boundary, in a private dwelling. 504 00:30:55,330 --> 00:30:57,810 So, we're right on the edge of the Agora space, 505 00:30:57,810 --> 00:31:01,650 and we're in-between the public space and the private space behind us here. 506 00:31:01,650 --> 00:31:04,050 And this wall behind us right here 507 00:31:04,050 --> 00:31:06,130 is one of those private establishments. 508 00:31:06,130 --> 00:31:08,290 And we have a later source that mentions 509 00:31:08,290 --> 00:31:11,330 Socrates visiting the house of a friend of his 510 00:31:11,330 --> 00:31:13,850 and we have this figure, Simon the Cobbler 511 00:31:13,850 --> 00:31:16,130 and he's hosting young men. 512 00:31:16,130 --> 00:31:17,890 So, we have the literary source, 513 00:31:17,890 --> 00:31:21,370 but what's nice is that during the excavations right here, 514 00:31:21,370 --> 00:31:23,890 they found hobnails, they found bone eyelets 515 00:31:23,890 --> 00:31:25,650 and then, they also found a cup 516 00:31:25,650 --> 00:31:28,650 and this is the amazing bit of evidence really, 517 00:31:28,650 --> 00:31:32,050 because this cup has the name "Simon" scratched on it. 518 00:31:32,050 --> 00:31:34,770 And this is a replica right here of the cup 519 00:31:34,770 --> 00:31:38,810 and you can see that it does have "Simonos" scratched on it. 520 00:31:38,810 --> 00:31:40,810 Yeah, I just... It's so thrilling being here, 521 00:31:40,810 --> 00:31:42,810 imagining those big, new ideas 522 00:31:42,810 --> 00:31:46,010 could possibly have been enacted there 2,500 years ago. 523 00:31:46,010 --> 00:31:48,610 We can say that Socrates was walking around this space 524 00:31:48,610 --> 00:31:51,210 and he was probably hanging out right here, 525 00:31:51,210 --> 00:31:54,770 in order to discuss things, things that might otherwise be... 526 00:31:54,770 --> 00:31:56,850 Something that might get him in trouble, 527 00:31:56,850 --> 00:31:59,210 I mean, it's a dangerous situation that, potentially. 528 00:31:59,210 --> 00:32:01,290 So, you've got this magnetic personality, 529 00:32:01,290 --> 00:32:03,930 having these rumbustious conversations with young men 530 00:32:03,930 --> 00:32:07,010 - and encouraging them to think for themselves. - That's exactly right. 531 00:32:07,010 --> 00:32:09,770 This is the place where we're supposed to have freedom of thought 532 00:32:09,770 --> 00:32:14,450 and freedom of expression and so on, in this democratic idea, 533 00:32:14,450 --> 00:32:18,050 but this is a place where you have to respect the gods 534 00:32:18,050 --> 00:32:19,970 and you have to respect your elders 535 00:32:19,970 --> 00:32:22,170 and you have to respect the laws of the city. 536 00:32:22,170 --> 00:32:24,930 He's questioning the gods, he's questioning the laws, 537 00:32:24,930 --> 00:32:27,610 so he's really putting it to the test 538 00:32:27,610 --> 00:32:31,530 and forcing these young guys to see things in a different way 539 00:32:31,530 --> 00:32:33,650 and the city didn't really like that. 540 00:32:35,610 --> 00:32:38,330 Socrates was storing up trouble, 541 00:32:38,330 --> 00:32:42,770 especially as some of his devotees were confident young aristocrats - 542 00:32:42,770 --> 00:32:44,410 the city's future leaders. 543 00:32:49,450 --> 00:32:52,530 Most notable was Alcibiades. 544 00:32:53,970 --> 00:32:57,690 Well born, wealthy and an Olympic champion, 545 00:32:57,690 --> 00:33:00,650 this sexually promiscuous hell raiser 546 00:33:00,650 --> 00:33:04,410 entranced and scandalised Athens for decades. 547 00:33:06,210 --> 00:33:09,570 Yet this playboy was friends with Socrates, 548 00:33:09,570 --> 00:33:12,410 who was 20 years his senior. 549 00:33:12,410 --> 00:33:14,890 Socrates had actually saved Alcibiades' life 550 00:33:14,890 --> 00:33:16,690 during the battle of Potidaea. 551 00:33:18,330 --> 00:33:21,330 Plato's Symposium describes an infamous exchange 552 00:33:21,330 --> 00:33:22,970 that took place between them 553 00:33:22,970 --> 00:33:25,850 during a heady, aristocratic drinking party. 554 00:33:27,770 --> 00:33:31,730 A drunken Alcibiades, we're told, crashes the discussion, 555 00:33:31,730 --> 00:33:35,170 which turns to the question of beauty. 556 00:33:35,170 --> 00:33:38,210 In Greek culture, Alcibiades' body beautiful 557 00:33:38,210 --> 00:33:42,410 would typically have been regarded as a sign of his moral beauty, too. 558 00:33:43,570 --> 00:33:46,210 But it appears Alcibiades bought into 559 00:33:46,210 --> 00:33:49,970 Socrates' alternative concept of real beauty. 560 00:33:51,690 --> 00:33:55,370 Socrates, he says, might be ugly on the outside, 561 00:33:55,370 --> 00:34:00,250 but he has an inner beauty that by far outshines any physical beauty - 562 00:34:00,250 --> 00:34:02,970 and that he, Alcibiades, loves Socrates 563 00:34:02,970 --> 00:34:04,850 because he is the wisest man 564 00:34:04,850 --> 00:34:07,290 and therefore, the most beautiful. 565 00:34:14,130 --> 00:34:17,810 However, when it came to achieving inner beauty for himself, 566 00:34:17,810 --> 00:34:21,610 Alcibiades was woefully out of step. 567 00:34:21,610 --> 00:34:24,490 He thought his good looks could help him, 568 00:34:24,490 --> 00:34:28,810 but his cocky plan to seduce Socrates was rebuffed. 569 00:34:28,810 --> 00:34:30,850 "You're plotting to get real beauty 570 00:34:30,850 --> 00:34:33,770 "in exchange for its appearance", Socrates said. 571 00:34:33,770 --> 00:34:36,050 "That would be gold for bronze". 572 00:34:41,930 --> 00:34:45,930 For Socrates, the talents of young aristocrats were worthless 573 00:34:45,930 --> 00:34:48,410 without the wisdom to use them properly. 574 00:34:49,610 --> 00:34:53,090 By debating with them, he was pushing the patience of Athens. 575 00:34:55,090 --> 00:34:57,970 Yet Socrates didn't compromise his principles... 576 00:34:59,250 --> 00:35:03,930 ..as demonstrated in the story of the Oracle of Delphi. 577 00:35:08,650 --> 00:35:11,690 We're told that a friend of Socrates, called Chaerephon, 578 00:35:11,690 --> 00:35:14,850 a rather impetuous individual from all accounts, 579 00:35:14,850 --> 00:35:17,850 came on pilgrimage here, to this sacred site. 580 00:35:21,410 --> 00:35:25,170 Delphi had been a place of religious devotion for 2,000 years. 581 00:35:28,410 --> 00:35:31,210 Chaerephon, in time-honoured fashion, 582 00:35:31,210 --> 00:35:35,010 climbed the sacred way to ask a question of the god Apollo, 583 00:35:35,010 --> 00:35:36,770 who spoke through a priestess. 584 00:35:41,410 --> 00:35:43,410 When he finally reached the Oracle, 585 00:35:43,410 --> 00:35:48,610 he asked, "Is there any man wiser than Socrates?" 586 00:35:48,610 --> 00:35:50,650 And the answer came back - 587 00:35:50,650 --> 00:35:51,850 "No". 588 00:35:56,530 --> 00:35:59,250 Chaerephon took the message to Socrates, 589 00:35:59,250 --> 00:36:02,850 who in typical manner, questioned the Oracle's words. 590 00:36:04,930 --> 00:36:08,170 Even the words of Apollo - a god, for heaven's sake - 591 00:36:08,170 --> 00:36:10,570 was subject to Socrates' scrutiny. 592 00:36:10,570 --> 00:36:15,170 He set about cross-examining people who had a reputation for wisdom, 593 00:36:15,170 --> 00:36:17,730 or a particular kind of specialist knowledge. 594 00:36:19,610 --> 00:36:23,810 After questioning public officials, poets and craftsmen, 595 00:36:23,810 --> 00:36:27,970 he discovered that they all lacked the wisdom they claimed. 596 00:36:31,090 --> 00:36:35,450 Eventually, Socrates concluded that the Oracle was indeed right. 597 00:36:35,450 --> 00:36:40,250 He was the wisest of men, but only, because as he put it, 598 00:36:40,250 --> 00:36:43,450 "I don't pretend to know what I don't know." 599 00:36:55,050 --> 00:36:56,690 Socrates was wiser 600 00:36:56,690 --> 00:37:00,090 because he acknowledged the limits of his own understanding. 601 00:37:01,250 --> 00:37:03,610 By publicly exposing the false pretensions 602 00:37:03,610 --> 00:37:06,650 and ignorance of those who did claim to know the truth, 603 00:37:06,650 --> 00:37:09,210 he was bound to make enemies. 604 00:37:09,210 --> 00:37:11,410 But there was something else about Socrates 605 00:37:11,410 --> 00:37:13,170 that was even more unsettling. 606 00:37:13,170 --> 00:37:17,690 He claimed to have his own daimonion, or guiding spirit. 607 00:37:17,690 --> 00:37:21,610 A kind of hotline of communication to the supernatural world. 608 00:37:31,130 --> 00:37:35,810 This daimonion spoke to him during trance-like episodes. 609 00:37:35,810 --> 00:37:38,210 It warned him from making wrong decisions. 610 00:37:39,610 --> 00:37:43,050 On one occasion, it advised against entering public politics. 611 00:37:44,250 --> 00:37:47,050 Socrates' followers would have been in awe of this 612 00:37:47,050 --> 00:37:50,010 uniquely personal divine calling, 613 00:37:50,010 --> 00:37:51,650 but the average Athenian 614 00:37:51,650 --> 00:37:55,530 would have been confused and deeply disturbed by it. 615 00:37:55,530 --> 00:37:58,010 Don't forget, this is a time and place 616 00:37:58,010 --> 00:38:02,290 where ritual, devotion and belief all take place out in public, 617 00:38:02,290 --> 00:38:04,690 as part of a shared experience. 618 00:38:06,170 --> 00:38:09,450 Not only that, but Greek folk culture imagined the world 619 00:38:09,450 --> 00:38:11,730 to be infused with spirits - 620 00:38:11,730 --> 00:38:13,250 not all of them good. 621 00:38:20,090 --> 00:38:23,330 Socrates' unorthodox, private spirituality 622 00:38:23,330 --> 00:38:25,050 could easily be confused with 623 00:38:25,050 --> 00:38:27,450 a darker, more troubling kind of magic. 624 00:38:28,530 --> 00:38:31,050 Some muttered that he was a sorcerer. 625 00:38:33,770 --> 00:38:36,130 In this super-religious culture, 626 00:38:36,130 --> 00:38:39,090 the philosopher was laying himself open to scandal. 627 00:38:40,970 --> 00:38:46,290 False rumours and innuendo would culminate on a very public stage, 628 00:38:46,290 --> 00:38:48,850 fostering the kind of misinformation 629 00:38:48,850 --> 00:38:52,490 that would ultimately spell disaster for Socrates. 630 00:39:03,090 --> 00:39:06,610 Picture Socrates, bustling up here to the theatre of Dionysus 631 00:39:06,610 --> 00:39:09,570 in spring, 423 BC. 632 00:39:09,570 --> 00:39:12,370 He finds some snacks to munch during the show - 633 00:39:12,370 --> 00:39:14,690 chickpeas, figs, nuts - 634 00:39:14,690 --> 00:39:16,610 settling down to watch the drama. 635 00:39:18,850 --> 00:39:21,970 He's here to watch a new comedy, called Clouds, 636 00:39:21,970 --> 00:39:25,730 by the young buck of Athenian theatre, Aristophanes - 637 00:39:25,730 --> 00:39:29,130 only 22 and eager to make his mark. 638 00:39:31,130 --> 00:39:35,450 By now a big character in the city, Socrates is considered fair game - 639 00:39:35,450 --> 00:39:38,450 and he's parodied pretty mercilessly. 640 00:39:38,450 --> 00:39:41,210 He's portrayed as a ludicrous figure, 641 00:39:41,210 --> 00:39:44,810 the head of a ridiculous school called "the think shop". 642 00:40:01,170 --> 00:40:03,570 LAUGHTER 643 00:40:03,570 --> 00:40:06,970 Socrates' character was merged with other intellectuals 644 00:40:06,970 --> 00:40:09,810 who were arousing popular suspicion - 645 00:40:09,810 --> 00:40:13,570 the devious sophists, who undermined society by making 646 00:40:13,570 --> 00:40:16,690 "the weak argument defeat the stronger". 647 00:40:16,690 --> 00:40:19,330 And the pre-Socratics, who in some cases, 648 00:40:19,330 --> 00:40:23,610 displaced the pre-eminence of the gods with their science. 649 00:40:23,610 --> 00:40:26,050 We're told that Socrates actually came to the theatre 650 00:40:26,050 --> 00:40:27,850 to watch Aristophanes' Clouds. 651 00:40:27,850 --> 00:40:31,690 What could it have felt like, to see himself portrayed in that way? 652 00:40:31,690 --> 00:40:35,650 I think he must have been amused. There is this anecdote of Socrates 653 00:40:35,650 --> 00:40:39,650 actually standing up in the seats of the theatre, 654 00:40:39,650 --> 00:40:42,810 so that those who didn't know him knew who he was 655 00:40:42,810 --> 00:40:44,370 and what he looked like, 656 00:40:44,370 --> 00:40:47,450 as his character was being ridiculed on stage. 657 00:40:47,450 --> 00:40:53,090 So I think Socrates was detached from all these standard norms of society 658 00:40:53,090 --> 00:40:57,650 and I think it's possible that he might have enjoyed that. 659 00:40:57,650 --> 00:41:00,370 On the face of it, this is all very amusing, 660 00:41:00,370 --> 00:41:02,650 but do you think that Socrates should be worried by 661 00:41:02,650 --> 00:41:05,450 the way that Aristophanes is choosing to portray him? 662 00:41:05,450 --> 00:41:08,250 In hindsight, I think he should have been worried. 663 00:41:08,250 --> 00:41:09,890 The core of democracy, 664 00:41:09,890 --> 00:41:13,370 the principle democracy is that the citizens be educated. 665 00:41:13,370 --> 00:41:16,610 If you don't have educated citizens, democracy does not work. 666 00:41:16,610 --> 00:41:21,570 The theatre was a major tool for educating the Athenian citizens 667 00:41:21,570 --> 00:41:24,330 and the memory of that portrayal 668 00:41:24,330 --> 00:41:26,690 would have remained for decades to come, 669 00:41:26,690 --> 00:41:29,650 as a whole generation of Athenians would have been exposed to it. 670 00:41:29,650 --> 00:41:31,890 It's the ancient equivalent of trial by media? 671 00:41:31,890 --> 00:41:34,330 It is, in fifth-century Athens, yeah. 672 00:41:55,730 --> 00:41:58,650 But the cracks appearing in Socrates' reputation 673 00:41:58,650 --> 00:42:02,210 were nothing compared to what was happening to Athens itself. 674 00:42:07,290 --> 00:42:09,770 As the war with Sparta dragged on, 675 00:42:09,770 --> 00:42:13,370 people questioned the success of the democratic experiment. 676 00:42:14,970 --> 00:42:19,250 At the heart of the uncertainty was Socrates' close friend, Alcibiades. 677 00:42:19,250 --> 00:42:21,330 He'd been chosen to lead an expedition 678 00:42:21,330 --> 00:42:23,730 against Sicily in 415 BC - 679 00:42:23,730 --> 00:42:26,490 the largest in Athens' military history. 680 00:42:29,290 --> 00:42:31,730 But one night, before they set sail, 681 00:42:31,730 --> 00:42:34,450 someone stalked through Athens' streets, 682 00:42:34,450 --> 00:42:38,490 mutilating statues of the protector god, Hermes. 683 00:42:38,490 --> 00:42:42,290 The rumour spread that Alcibiades and his aristocratic friends 684 00:42:42,290 --> 00:42:46,370 were the vandals, part of a plot to bring down democracy. 685 00:42:47,930 --> 00:42:51,250 Back in Athens, rumour escalated to outrage 686 00:42:51,250 --> 00:42:56,330 and Alcibiades was ordered home to face trial on charges of sacrilege. 687 00:42:56,330 --> 00:42:58,730 But then, en route, he vanished. 688 00:42:58,730 --> 00:43:02,450 And where he reappeared shocked everyone. 689 00:43:02,450 --> 00:43:04,610 He turned up, a traitor, 690 00:43:04,610 --> 00:43:07,690 in the bosom of Athens' greatest enemy, 691 00:43:07,690 --> 00:43:08,890 Sparta. 692 00:43:15,970 --> 00:43:18,170 Alcibiades' damaging defection 693 00:43:18,170 --> 00:43:22,210 exacerbated the anxieties of a god-fearing public. 694 00:43:22,210 --> 00:43:24,290 They needed a scapegoat - 695 00:43:24,290 --> 00:43:27,410 and Socrates was tainted by association. 696 00:43:29,930 --> 00:43:32,090 But he seems unconcerned, 697 00:43:32,090 --> 00:43:36,010 doggedly pursuing the knowledge of right from wrong above all else. 698 00:43:39,930 --> 00:43:44,690 So when the philosopher unexpectedly entered public life in his 60s, 699 00:43:44,690 --> 00:43:47,370 he was on a collision course with Athens. 700 00:43:54,770 --> 00:43:58,610 He became presiding officer in an emotionally charged case, 701 00:43:58,610 --> 00:44:02,770 whose drama was played out here on the hill of the Pynx. 702 00:44:02,770 --> 00:44:05,410 Six disgraced Athenian generals 703 00:44:05,410 --> 00:44:08,570 were accused of failing to collect the bodies of dead soldiers, 704 00:44:08,570 --> 00:44:09,850 lost at sea. 705 00:44:13,170 --> 00:44:16,690 The public called for the generals to be tried together, 706 00:44:16,690 --> 00:44:18,330 in breach of Athenian law. 707 00:44:19,730 --> 00:44:22,250 But Socrates refused to be swept along 708 00:44:22,250 --> 00:44:24,330 by the vengeful mood of the crowd. 709 00:44:27,050 --> 00:44:29,450 Even though threatened with indictment for treason, 710 00:44:29,450 --> 00:44:31,810 Socrates refused to budge. 711 00:44:31,810 --> 00:44:35,210 He wanted no part in this kangaroo court. 712 00:44:35,210 --> 00:44:37,890 As the sun set, there was stalemate. 713 00:44:37,890 --> 00:44:41,610 And then, the next morning, Socrates was off the case. 714 00:44:41,610 --> 00:44:43,010 Later that day, 715 00:44:43,010 --> 00:44:46,970 the generals were all tried here together at the Pnyx - 716 00:44:46,970 --> 00:44:49,730 condemned and then executed. 717 00:44:56,130 --> 00:44:59,530 To me, this case embodies one of the most important ideas 718 00:44:59,530 --> 00:45:02,610 that Socrates has been developing all his adult life, 719 00:45:02,610 --> 00:45:06,170 which is that one should never take revenge. 720 00:45:06,170 --> 00:45:09,570 And in this, he's completely turning on its head 721 00:45:09,570 --> 00:45:14,930 one of the foundational tenets of traditional Greek morality, 722 00:45:14,930 --> 00:45:18,730 which said that you should help your friends and harm your enemies. 723 00:45:18,730 --> 00:45:20,290 And Socrates says, no - 724 00:45:20,290 --> 00:45:23,130 because all you can do to another person is, 725 00:45:23,130 --> 00:45:26,370 you can take away their possessions, you can damage their body, 726 00:45:26,370 --> 00:45:29,930 you can kill them, but you can't harm their soul. 727 00:45:29,930 --> 00:45:34,650 But by doing wrong to somebody else, you are damaging your own soul 728 00:45:34,650 --> 00:45:38,890 and thereby, taking away your chance of a virtuous 729 00:45:38,890 --> 00:45:41,970 and hence also, a happy and flourishing life. 730 00:45:41,970 --> 00:45:44,810 This was a city-state that believed in justice, 731 00:45:44,810 --> 00:45:47,170 that wanted to see justice enacted, 732 00:45:47,170 --> 00:45:50,930 so in Socrates' book, what form should punishment take? 733 00:45:50,930 --> 00:45:52,730 It's a good point. 734 00:45:52,730 --> 00:45:55,490 He does believe that sometimes, punishment is appropriate, 735 00:45:55,490 --> 00:46:01,130 but you punish somebody solely in terms of trying to cure their soul 736 00:46:01,130 --> 00:46:05,810 of the damage that they have brought upon themselves by doing wrong. 737 00:46:05,810 --> 00:46:11,610 So, punishment is there to cure and purify a damaged soul. 738 00:46:11,610 --> 00:46:14,850 Even today, those still feel like quite progressive ideas. 739 00:46:14,850 --> 00:46:18,370 Absolutely, I mean we're barely catching up with these ideas. 740 00:46:18,370 --> 00:46:22,930 Even now, we still have debates. What is the purpose of punishment? 741 00:46:22,930 --> 00:46:26,250 Is it to...is it a kind of retribution, 742 00:46:26,250 --> 00:46:29,250 or is it some kind of reform? 743 00:46:29,250 --> 00:46:31,770 Now, Socrates is absolutely clear - 744 00:46:31,770 --> 00:46:34,730 the purpose of punishment is to reform. 745 00:46:34,730 --> 00:46:37,010 They are fascinating ideas, 746 00:46:37,010 --> 00:46:40,170 but they must have been very, very troubling to the Athenians, 747 00:46:40,170 --> 00:46:43,170 because it must have felt as if he was kind of unpicking 748 00:46:43,170 --> 00:46:45,770 the foundations that that kept communities together. 749 00:46:45,770 --> 00:46:48,570 Yeah. It would have looked weak to them. 750 00:46:48,570 --> 00:46:51,130 It would have looked like, "Oh, no, you're not a real man, 751 00:46:51,130 --> 00:46:54,770 "you're not standing up for yourself, what are you doing?" 752 00:46:54,770 --> 00:46:57,450 In a way, he's almost anticipating 753 00:46:57,450 --> 00:46:59,850 the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. 754 00:46:59,850 --> 00:47:02,410 You know, turn the other cheek, in a sense. 755 00:47:02,410 --> 00:47:05,250 - But he's 500 years before all that. - Oh, yes. 756 00:47:05,250 --> 00:47:10,250 How does he dare to march so out of step from the rest of society? 757 00:47:10,250 --> 00:47:13,730 Because I think he absolutely believes 758 00:47:13,730 --> 00:47:16,490 that nobody else can harm his soul, 759 00:47:16,490 --> 00:47:19,330 but if he takes part in the illegal actions 760 00:47:19,330 --> 00:47:22,050 that he was invited to take part in, 761 00:47:22,050 --> 00:47:26,370 then he will be absolutely damaging his own soul 762 00:47:26,370 --> 00:47:30,370 and taking away his chance of a happy and flourishing life. 763 00:47:33,330 --> 00:47:35,010 In the name of wisdom and truth, 764 00:47:35,010 --> 00:47:37,410 Socrates was prepared to stick his head 765 00:47:37,410 --> 00:47:40,330 dangerously high above the parapet. 766 00:47:40,330 --> 00:47:42,450 Interestingly, it's a quality that he shares 767 00:47:42,450 --> 00:47:45,290 with both Confucius and the Buddha. 768 00:47:45,290 --> 00:47:47,130 For all three philosophers, 769 00:47:47,130 --> 00:47:49,530 personal comfort and personal security 770 00:47:49,530 --> 00:47:52,450 came a poor second to principle. 771 00:47:52,450 --> 00:47:56,610 And in the case of Socrates, having the courage of his convictions 772 00:47:56,610 --> 00:47:59,210 would prove to be a matter of life or death. 773 00:48:08,610 --> 00:48:10,770 As Athens' enemies closed in, 774 00:48:10,770 --> 00:48:13,090 society turned in on itself. 775 00:48:14,690 --> 00:48:18,050 Freedom was a luxury it could no longer afford. 776 00:48:23,930 --> 00:48:27,530 Finally, the Spartans brought Athens to her knees. 777 00:48:27,530 --> 00:48:29,250 They tore down her city walls 778 00:48:29,250 --> 00:48:32,770 and installed a junta of 30 hand-picked oligarchs. 779 00:48:36,970 --> 00:48:38,810 Death squads roamed the streets 780 00:48:38,810 --> 00:48:42,530 and thousands of democrats were "disappeared" - 781 00:48:42,530 --> 00:48:45,370 forced into exile or executed. 782 00:48:48,490 --> 00:48:50,970 Even though a counter-revolution restored democracy 783 00:48:50,970 --> 00:48:52,930 just eight months later, 784 00:48:52,930 --> 00:48:56,170 it was a deeply compromised democracy, 785 00:48:56,170 --> 00:48:58,930 riven with suspicion and recrimination. 786 00:49:00,610 --> 00:49:02,850 In this poisonous atmosphere, 787 00:49:02,850 --> 00:49:07,170 Athens finally decided to deal with its troublesome gadfly. 788 00:49:20,570 --> 00:49:24,250 In 399 BC, at the age of 70, 789 00:49:24,250 --> 00:49:26,730 Socrates was back in court. 790 00:49:26,730 --> 00:49:29,770 This time, HE was on trial. 791 00:49:29,770 --> 00:49:33,210 The accusations against him were read out here, in the Agora, 792 00:49:33,210 --> 00:49:35,730 close to this oath stone. 793 00:49:35,730 --> 00:49:37,650 The first charge was impiety - 794 00:49:37,650 --> 00:49:40,530 denying the gods and introducing new ones. 795 00:49:40,530 --> 00:49:43,650 The second, that he'd corrupted the young. 796 00:49:43,650 --> 00:49:47,130 Both could carry the heaviest penalty - 797 00:49:47,130 --> 00:49:48,330 execution. 798 00:49:53,970 --> 00:49:59,210 The trial took place in a religious court, using the latest technology. 799 00:49:59,210 --> 00:50:02,370 A water clock measured the three hours allowed 800 00:50:02,370 --> 00:50:03,970 to the prosecution's case. 801 00:50:05,370 --> 00:50:07,810 Were his accusers politically motivated? 802 00:50:07,810 --> 00:50:09,370 Was he being scapegoated 803 00:50:09,370 --> 00:50:14,370 for his association with prominent anti-democrats, like Alcibiades? 804 00:50:14,370 --> 00:50:16,210 Perhaps. 805 00:50:16,210 --> 00:50:19,770 But then, he'd set about to open the minds of the young 806 00:50:19,770 --> 00:50:21,930 and with his goading questions, 807 00:50:21,930 --> 00:50:23,970 to challenge the status quo. 808 00:50:27,930 --> 00:50:30,330 Eventually, the water clock was refilled 809 00:50:30,330 --> 00:50:32,610 for the philosopher to defend himself. 810 00:50:33,730 --> 00:50:37,650 Plato recounts how Socrates feels he's fighting a lost cause, 811 00:50:37,650 --> 00:50:41,450 thanks to Aristophanes' searing, damaging caricature of him. 812 00:50:49,530 --> 00:50:52,130 "It is not my crimes that will convict me", he said, 813 00:50:52,130 --> 00:50:53,930 "but rumour and gossip. 814 00:50:53,930 --> 00:50:56,170 "I can't possibly defend myself - 815 00:50:56,170 --> 00:50:58,970 "it's like boxing with shadows. 816 00:50:58,970 --> 00:51:01,890 "You will persuade yourselves that I am guilty." 817 00:51:04,450 --> 00:51:06,090 Yet, in typical style, 818 00:51:06,090 --> 00:51:09,290 Socrates uses his defence to sting his fellow Athenians 819 00:51:09,290 --> 00:51:11,810 from their moral slumber. 820 00:51:11,810 --> 00:51:14,930 It is a brilliant, audacious speech, 821 00:51:14,930 --> 00:51:17,450 but it's also provocative and arrogant, 822 00:51:17,450 --> 00:51:20,650 and the jurors don't like it one bit. 823 00:51:20,650 --> 00:51:24,490 The city that once fetishized freedom and freedom of speech 824 00:51:24,490 --> 00:51:27,210 could not tolerate freedom to offend. 825 00:51:35,170 --> 00:51:39,130 Socrates was judged by at least 500 men, chosen at random 826 00:51:39,130 --> 00:51:42,850 and recruited from all over the traumatised city-state. 827 00:51:44,090 --> 00:51:47,570 The jurors would have used these ballots in a secret vote. 828 00:51:47,570 --> 00:51:49,890 A solid stem for acquittal. 829 00:51:49,890 --> 00:51:51,770 A hollow for condemnation. 830 00:52:00,930 --> 00:52:05,450 Found guilty, a second vote is held to determine his punishment. 831 00:52:06,450 --> 00:52:08,810 Socrates has the chance to avoid execution 832 00:52:08,810 --> 00:52:11,210 by proposing a lesser alternative - 833 00:52:11,210 --> 00:52:13,210 typically a fine, or exile. 834 00:52:14,330 --> 00:52:18,690 Instead, by speaking freely, democratically, 835 00:52:18,690 --> 00:52:20,490 he seems to invite martyrdom. 836 00:52:21,890 --> 00:52:25,330 He declares that he's lived his life for the benefit of the city. 837 00:52:25,330 --> 00:52:28,610 He deserves reward, not retribution. 838 00:52:28,610 --> 00:52:32,890 He suggests dinner, in perpetuity, at the citizens' expense. 839 00:52:35,810 --> 00:52:39,650 Socrates' irony loses him more support in the second vote. 840 00:52:41,570 --> 00:52:44,850 It seems he takes the news philosophically. 841 00:52:44,850 --> 00:52:48,250 The jury couldn't harm his soul, 842 00:52:48,250 --> 00:52:50,850 but they had harmed their own. 843 00:52:50,850 --> 00:52:53,650 "Now I go to die and you to live. 844 00:52:53,650 --> 00:52:55,970 "God only knows which is the better journey." 845 00:53:01,450 --> 00:53:04,530 Socrates didn't fear what he didn't know, 846 00:53:04,530 --> 00:53:05,890 including death. 847 00:53:07,010 --> 00:53:10,210 The man the Oracle proclaimed to be the wisest 848 00:53:10,210 --> 00:53:14,530 was now on death row for putting his own philosophy into practice. 849 00:53:17,370 --> 00:53:20,690 One of the things I find so compelling about Socrates 850 00:53:20,690 --> 00:53:24,050 is that even though he lived 25 centuries ago, 851 00:53:24,050 --> 00:53:27,370 in many ways, he saw us coming. 852 00:53:27,370 --> 00:53:29,930 He denounces an obsession with looks, 853 00:53:29,930 --> 00:53:31,850 with material goods, 854 00:53:31,850 --> 00:53:34,650 with spin and with fame. 855 00:53:34,650 --> 00:53:37,690 He wasn't just exploring the meaning of life, 856 00:53:37,690 --> 00:53:40,410 but the meaning of our own lives. 857 00:53:40,410 --> 00:53:41,730 Just listen to this. 858 00:53:43,210 --> 00:53:45,690 "Oh, my friend, why do you, 859 00:53:45,690 --> 00:53:49,130 "who are a citizen of the great and wise city of Athens, 860 00:53:49,130 --> 00:53:53,730 "care so much about laying up wealth and honour and reputation? 861 00:53:53,730 --> 00:53:58,970 "And so little about wisdom and truth and improvement of the soul? 862 00:54:00,250 --> 00:54:02,090 "Are you not ashamed?" 863 00:54:07,090 --> 00:54:10,570 Socrates would have to wait a month for his execution - 864 00:54:10,570 --> 00:54:13,410 a sentence intended to silence him. 865 00:54:14,410 --> 00:54:17,370 But Socrates' death at the hands of the people 866 00:54:17,370 --> 00:54:19,450 provided the perfect ingredients 867 00:54:19,450 --> 00:54:23,090 for his resurrection as an ideological martyr - 868 00:54:23,090 --> 00:54:25,970 a kind of blueprint philosopher. 869 00:54:25,970 --> 00:54:28,850 And ironically, what secured his legacy 870 00:54:28,850 --> 00:54:32,970 was the very thing that he'd disregarded throughout his life - 871 00:54:32,970 --> 00:54:34,610 the written word. 872 00:54:35,930 --> 00:54:39,930 His supporters wrote detailed accounts of his extraordinary life, 873 00:54:39,930 --> 00:54:43,250 immortalising his ideas and his spirit. 874 00:54:43,250 --> 00:54:44,770 Through their words, 875 00:54:44,770 --> 00:54:49,690 his game-changing, history-making voice endures . 876 00:54:49,690 --> 00:54:52,610 Still asking those probing, universal questions 877 00:54:52,610 --> 00:54:56,170 which, even today, are at the heart of our value systems. 878 00:54:56,170 --> 00:54:57,890 What makes us good? 879 00:54:57,890 --> 00:54:59,770 What is justice? 880 00:54:59,770 --> 00:55:01,130 How can we be happy? 881 00:55:03,250 --> 00:55:07,690 Socrates was the inspiration for Plato and Aristotle - 882 00:55:07,690 --> 00:55:09,810 two giants of philosophy, 883 00:55:09,810 --> 00:55:14,530 whose ideas would shape Western and Eastern civilisation up until today. 884 00:55:16,530 --> 00:55:18,210 Following Socrates' death, 885 00:55:18,210 --> 00:55:22,490 Plato abandoned his political ambitions in disgust 886 00:55:22,490 --> 00:55:26,170 and set up his Academy, which would continue as a centre of learning 887 00:55:26,170 --> 00:55:29,050 for close on 1,000 years. 888 00:55:29,050 --> 00:55:31,330 This building is Athens' modern Academy 889 00:55:31,330 --> 00:55:33,650 and it's just a couple of miles from the original. 890 00:55:33,650 --> 00:55:37,210 And it's part of a network of academic institutions, 891 00:55:37,210 --> 00:55:41,490 right across the globe, inspired by that Athenian example. 892 00:55:58,570 --> 00:56:00,890 On the day of Socrates' execution, 893 00:56:00,890 --> 00:56:04,610 his distraught friends and family came here to the Agora. 894 00:56:04,610 --> 00:56:09,130 The place where Socrates had once walked freely was now his cage. 895 00:56:12,610 --> 00:56:13,930 But he is serene. 896 00:56:15,570 --> 00:56:20,010 Calmly, he lifts the lethal little cup of hemlock poison... 897 00:56:20,010 --> 00:56:21,250 and drinks. 898 00:56:27,850 --> 00:56:30,050 We're told that Socrates' last words 899 00:56:30,050 --> 00:56:32,210 as the lethal hemlock took effect were, 900 00:56:32,210 --> 00:56:35,730 "Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius." 901 00:56:36,770 --> 00:56:38,730 With this cryptic message, 902 00:56:38,730 --> 00:56:40,930 even on the brink of death, 903 00:56:40,930 --> 00:56:44,090 he kept his followers and future scholars guessing. 904 00:56:47,490 --> 00:56:51,610 Was he proving himself pious by invoking one of the city's deities? 905 00:56:52,770 --> 00:56:56,690 Or was he ironically giving thanks to the god of healing 906 00:56:56,690 --> 00:56:59,810 for relieving him of the sickness of existence? 907 00:57:01,330 --> 00:57:04,490 Socrates might have been infuriating, 908 00:57:04,490 --> 00:57:08,530 but his tenacious questioning of what it means to be human 909 00:57:08,530 --> 00:57:12,130 still has absolute resonance. 910 00:57:12,130 --> 00:57:15,250 By stating that the ultimate evil is ignorance 911 00:57:15,250 --> 00:57:18,490 and that a good life is within our reach, 912 00:57:18,490 --> 00:57:23,250 he challenges us all never to be thoughtless. 913 00:57:27,410 --> 00:57:31,010 "The unexamined life is not worth living." 914 00:57:34,410 --> 00:57:36,090 With his head covered, 915 00:57:36,090 --> 00:57:41,010 no-one saw the final moment, when Socrates' precious soul 916 00:57:41,010 --> 00:57:46,730 slipped from that ugly, satirical, unforgettable face. 917 00:57:57,290 --> 00:57:59,210 If the mind of Socrates has made you think, 918 00:57:59,210 --> 00:58:01,970 then explore further with The Open University 919 00:58:01,970 --> 00:58:05,730 to discover how great minds have influenced our thinking today. 920 00:58:05,730 --> 00:58:07,170 Follow the address on the screen 921 00:58:07,170 --> 00:58:09,650 and then the links to The Open University. 922 00:58:13,410 --> 00:58:17,530 Next time, I investigate the gentleman philosopher, Confucius. 923 00:58:19,210 --> 00:58:22,930 His attempts to influence the rulers of his day ended in failure... 924 00:58:24,850 --> 00:58:28,050 ..yet his vision of a harmonious society, 925 00:58:28,050 --> 00:58:31,290 inspired by the sage kings of the past 926 00:58:31,290 --> 00:58:36,050 would eventually shape one of the world's greatest civilisations. 77195

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